Fashion game: high tech low brow

My great-aunt Genevieve lived in an old house along Minnehaha Creek with her sister, Helen. They were always old. Helen was widowed. Gen never married. Neither had children. I was a child. That made us complete mysteries to one another.

The great-aunts kept cut glass dishes of hard candy that was, as far as I know, never eaten. By anyone. Ever.

Aunt Gen, bless her heart, noticed that the coffee and conversation were failing to engage her so-so great-niece, so pulled out a musty-smelling cardboard box of uncut paper dolls circa 1935.

Call me deprived, but I'd never seen paper dolls before. Plastic Barbie, Chatty Cathy and Poor Pitiful Pearl, sure, but paper dolls were from an earlier era. Or maybe I just wasn't paying attention.

Even at age 6, I recognized that the doll figures and their clothes were curiously antique. My mom suggested I just admire them. Preferably from afar. I wasn't sure if she was protecting me from mold or the antiques from my sticky hands. But Gen insisted cutting them up was fine. I had practiced using scissors only a couple of times in kindergarten, but that didn't stop me from trying.

The resulting shapes looked like the clothing equivalent of a Frank Gehry building.

Now kids can play with "paper dolls" online. Something like eating virtual ice cream, right? A company called Ubisoft just came out with Imagine Fashion Party, compatible with Nintendo and Wii. Players star in a TV show and compete to be the best fashion designer through a series of design challenges. The company touts the game as "a fun way for girls to express and encourage creativity, and also an enjoyable, interactive activity for those parties and sleepovers!"